One of the biggest challenges that small businesses and solos face come tax time is getting organized. If you’re like me – and I don’t mind saying so – you tend to spend far too much time sorting through papers and receipts.
But what if you could scan all your paper receipts to transform the paper into digital documents? And even better, what if you could assign a tax deduction category (medical/dental, travel, etc.) to each receipt? You could cut the clutter and get set for tax season all at once.
You can. Neat Company and taxgirl are teaming up at tax season to help you do a little spring cleaning. It’s easy to enter. Just answer this question: How would you spend the extra time you’d save at tax season by using NeatDesk or NeatReceipts?
A panel of two judges (myself and a rep from Neat Company) will choose the two best comments from among the entries. The best comment will receive a NeatDesk and the runner up will receive a NeatReceipts.
Here are some additional rules:
- Entries must be posted in the comments section below by 11:59 p.m. EST on March 20, 2009 (that’s the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere).
- Due to shipping considerations, only those residents of the US and Canada can enter.
- One entry per person.
- You must include your full name and your email address with your entry. I won’t publish your email address, but I do need contact information for the winning entry. I respect your privacy, and I will not send you anything unrelated to your entry in this contest.
- By entering the contest, you agree that I may post any part or all of your submission including your name as a part of the contest announcements or promotions, with the exception of your email address.
- The decision of the judges is final and in our sole discretion. Unlike American Idol, there’s no voting from the audience or winning us over with hot pants. It might work for Simon Cowell, but not with me.
I think that covers it. I’m looking forward to reading your entries, let the games begin!
Hello, I don’t know if my last comment went through.
“How would you spend the extra time you’d save at tax season by using NeatDesk or NeatReceipts?”
I would volunteer in the VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program more! With the time saved by NeatDesk and NeatReceipts, I would volunteer more than the 6 hours a week I already do.
I’d help more family and friends organize their tax stuff with NeatReceipts/Neat Desk. Then we’d use some the time we save to go out and celebrate the end of our tax season!
With the extra time I could spend on my hobby of genealogy. Tracing early members of the family in their pioneer days, and passing this on to my eight grnadkids is “high on my bucket list”. So not only at tax time, but to further use the Neat Desk year ’round.
RW PHILLIPS
I would allot the extra time and savings to helping those who are in financial distress get a plan together. There is a great need in this area (SE Michigan)for that sort of counseling, but it takes time and money to do it.
With my kids! My wife and I are both CPAs and we have this little business. This time of year we both work too much and it can really affect the kids (7,5 and 2). Anything we can do to work more efficiently gets us home earlier and gives us a little more time with them. The rest of the year my wife works 1 or 2 days a week, but this time of year the kids really miss her being home.
I would love to spend some additional time getting together a bigger team for the Ovarian Cancer Walk/Run that we’re planning to do in May. It’s a cause that’s near and dear to my heart, as well as a few of my clients. It would be great to have the opportunity to get a big, fun team all while raising money for a great cause. Thanks for the opportunity!
I would transform my pile of receipts into origami figures, creating a miniature replica of the entire animal population at the National Zoo.
I thought about all the things I want to do, like working on my garden, finally getting my will in line, but most likely what I’d do w/ the extra time is to use the scanner to organize my friend’s receipts! She hates doing anything finance related and I end up organizing her papers and taxes for her every year. And inevitably she has several ziplock bags full of receipts for us to dig through. I’m hoping that if the scanner works really well, she can get one too and maybe it’ll encourage her to actually organize!
How would you spend the extra time you’d save at tax season by using NeatDesk or NeatReceipts?
I would and will be coaching my daughters softball team, along with coaching her Pop Warner cheerleading squad and then there is the job of being team mom for my oldest daughters dance team… but more so than that, I would spend that time with my husband. Instead of sorting through the paper, we could go for a nice walk or see a movie. Hmmm. Date night with the hubby, that’s a concept!
I would use the extra time to start a new tax prep business. I have always enjoyed doing tax returns and if I am able to unclutter my desk, my office may actually be presentable enough to invite people in . I would love to have one of these great devices so I can recommend it to my new clients next year!
How would I spend the extra time I’d save at tax season by using NeatDesk or NeatReceipts? I’d invest my time in trying to grow my business, and generate even more receipts I could scan in using NeatDesk and NeatReceipts! The more business I generated, the more I could use these great products!
How would you spend the extra time you’d save at tax season by using NeatDesk or NeatReceipts?
I wish I could give you some altruistic answer like, “With my extra time, I’d solve the world economic crisis”, or “I’d volunteer at a local charity.” But the first one is “above my paygrade” and I already do the second one.
So if I was the lucky recipient of a NeatDesk or NeatReceipts, I would probably spend my extra time as a NeatDesk/Receipts evangelist and tell fellow solo/small-firm attorneys in Minnesota how great the product is. I saw a display in an airport recently and it really does look good.
Oh boy, I reviewed the NeatDesk a month or two ago over at Freelancedom, and it was fabulous. I was sad to have to return it.
With all the extra time that NeatDesk would provide me with, I would think about signing up for hoop dancing and belly dancing classes, spending more time cooking, and relaxing with a good book (or 10)…but let’s be honest. I’d probably use the extra time to work more!
(I love the work that I do, though, so perhaps I can be forgiven my workaholic tendencies.)
“How would you spend the extra time you’d save at tax season by using NeatDesk or NeatReceipts?”
I would get far more involved in our local taxpayers association (probably participate on its board of directors).
Our community recently increased its sales tax by one percent.
The result has been closure of businesses at a rate faster than in surrounding communities. Even worse, none of the promised services enhancements promoted in the tax bill have yet materialized.
With the extra time I’d save, I would:
Smile at more strangers I pass on the street;
Create more beautiful things for the world to see (I’m a graphic designer);
See more beautiful things that the world has to offer;
Spend more time with my friends and family;
Strengthen my mind, body, and soul;
Give to a charity I believe in (with the money I’d save on my taxes!)
Neat Desk and Neat Receipts would save me so much time, I would be able to spend more time with my clients. Doctors save lives, and humanitarians fight causes, but accountants help businesses, and I like to think of myself as a doctor of numbers, helping small businesses succeed. By offering them tools like Neat Desk and Neat Receipts they will also save time, and the process will continue to be “paid forward” until eventually, the economy will be back on its feet; the financial crisis will end; and confidence in Wall Street will be restored. What an amazing product.
I would spend the extra time on increased study time. In my job, you always have to keep up with the newest technologies out there, and there is never enough time to really read up on everything that comes out. So the time savings from NeatReceipts would let me focus on the bigger picture of improving my marketability (always a good thing, especially now!).
How would you spend the extra time you’d save at tax season by using NeatDesk or NeatReceipts?
I can think of several ways to spend the time! The hours wasted filing, sorting, reorganizing and then filing again could now be spent with my 1-year old, outside in the fresh air! Additional time left over (and surely there would be some) I could learn Spanish through our local library. After conquering the great outdoors and trilingual-ism, I think I would like to start a support group for families with children in, or recently released from, the hospital, where together we can work to sort through the MILLIONS of bills, charges, insurance denials; these only add to the stress after major health complications in a family member.
Even still, I might have time left over, then I would enjoy an evening on the patio with a Margarita in hand.
As a young entrepreneur getting ready to head to college, a scanner would let me spend more time preparing for school (and completing scholarship applications to pay for it!) and less time working on taxes and making sure I have saved all the necessary business records.
The scanner would also come with me to college. In a dorm room, space is at a premium, so being able to capture tax documents and other information digitally is a huge advantage.
How would you spend the extra time you’d save at tax season by using NeatDesk or NeatReceipts?
Oh, to get back those two weeks of teeth gnashing. Here’s my situation, and what I’d do:
My brother is getting married in June. My sister is getting married in November. Yes, I am both weddings. I am the maid of honor in my sister’s wedding.
Here’s what I missed while working on my taxes:
1. My sister picked her wedding gown and vail. I went to the first “trying on of dresses,” but she picked her dress on the second set when I was burning a hole in my calculator.
2. My brother and future sister-in-law chose their rehearsal dinner location. Free food. I MISSED FREE FOOD while counting up all my business meal deductions.
3. Invitation shopping for bridal shower invitations. Seem silly? Did I tell you how much I love stationery and everything revolving around it? Instead, I was wrestling with the accordion folder that holds my receipts. It sucked receipts into its folds, and I could not for the life of me get two out. I eventually ripped apart the folder.
NeatDesk or NeatReceipts would have saved me this fate and brought me back into the loop in wedding plans and lifted the “bad bridesmaid” crown from my head. Stupid taxes.
Inspired by my newly found superpower of organization from using NeatDesk (or NeatReceipts), I would use the extra time gained by digitizing my business receipts to continue to eliminate paper (and clutter) from my office and turn my other documents (articles, notes from conferences, business cards stuffed in hotel envelopes) into digital format which would actually make them useful (and make me more productive)!
I must confess I would also have to take some of the extra time to decide what color cape would be appropriate for my NeatGirl superpower costume. Then, on to rid the rest of the world of clutter and under-utilized pieces of information by telling them about the real power behind my superpower–NeatDesk!
I was involved in an auto accident about a year ago and it is very difficult for me to carry around large files and it seems like they just keep getting bigger and bigger. When I do this it causes me to lose the use of my left arm and I must go lie down and pack myself in ice many times during the day which makes my days at work at home very long in order to get done. If I had the use of a quick and dependable scanner I could have my wife or daughter scan the files in the evening so that I could work in them during the day and not handle the physical files as much. This way I might have more time in the evening, after my family helps me, to spend with them without being in so much pain. That is what I would do I would spend more time with my family.
How would I spend the extra time you’d save at tax season by using NeatDesk or NeatReceipts?
Let me start by offering this photo. It is of my desk/work area, taken moments ago (note what’s on the PC screen).
http://tinyurl.com/JaysDesk
So clearly, I need some organizational help.
Heck, I might need 3 or 4 NeatDesk’s and gaggle of assistants to organize this train wreck.
What would I do if I won?
After I solved world hunger and the financial crisis, I’d take an “after” photo of my neat desk and become the new NeatDesk poster boy.
I believe Jay needs it worse than I do. I think that I saw something’s eyes peeking out from under a stack of paper on the right hand side of the desk.
chuck
Our home is overflowing with paperwork, and we’ve got a baby on the way (due two weeks before tax day, and no, I haven’t started on my taxes yet). This would help us make space for baby, as well as the family and friends who want to come visit us to meet the new little person. We’d love the company, but we have to get at least enough paperwork done that guests can find somewhere to sit! It would also be nice to see the dining table and maybe even use it for, say, dining. I think the last time (only time?) I saw it used as a dining table was Thanksgiving 2003. Also, since the office overflowed into the rest of the house and is showing little sign of retreating, I’m afraid kiddo might be destined to grow up not knowing the difference between ‘office’, ‘living room’ and ‘dining room’.
Blog, vlog, and Twitter. Everyone’s been waiting for my help. My husband wants to learn to blog, my nephew wants help jazzing up his blog with video, and my pastor and church need help with Twitter accounts. I haven’t been able to find time for them.
I switched to a paperless office years ago. Every receipt, invoice, deposit, 1099, etc. is faithfully scanned, saved to the appropriate file, entered into QuickBooks, and the tossed into the to-be-shred box.
I know exactly how much time we would save with the Neatdesk because we are currently using the wrong tool for the job: an HP ScanJet G4050. We bought this scanner because of its ability to scan the old family slides. And it did a nice job on the slides, but it is extremely cumbersome when it comes to scanning receipts. It has a huge footprint and requires a lot of user interaction for each and every receipt that is scanned.
Included with the HP scanner was a free version of PaperPort 11. I used this program to sort all of the scanned receipts into appropriate folders. I liked the theory of how the program was supposed to work, (a desktop view of thumbnails of documents contained in a folder), but it crashed on me consistently … usually every dozen receipts or so.
I can estimate that each receipt takes me approximately 5 minutes to enter into QuickBooks, scan on the HP G4050, and name & save in PaperPort. There are 1,086 scanned receipts saved in my 2008 receipt folders. At 5 minutes each, I am spending about 5,415 minutes every year working with receipts.
If the NeatDesk will cut that time at least in half, I would save 2,707 minutes each year or 45¼ hours. That’s like a week’s paid vacation! And since I work from a home office, those 45 hours (or more because I suspect the NeatDesk will be faster) will be better spent by helping my family and friends learn to use some of the great social media tools that they’re missing out on.